7.  The applicant was born in 1961 and lives in the town of Kyzyl in the Tyva Republic of the Russian Federation. He is a journalist working for the State television and radio broadcasting company Tyva (GTRK Tyva).
8.  In 1999, the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the lower chamber of Russian Parliament, were scheduled to take place on 19 December. In the Tyva Republic, Mrs G. Salchak was the leading candidate of the Otechestvo party, and Mr I. Loktionov of the Edinstvo movement. The elections to the federal Parliament coincided with the elections to the Great Khural, the Parliament of the Tyva Republic.
9.  On 15 December 1999 the Tyva television channel broadcast a live show “Elections-99” with the participation of election candidates Mr P.A., Mr V.S. and Mr A.M. The applicant was the presenter. The editor took a question from a viewer by phone, wrote it on a piece of paper and handed it over to the applicant who read the question to the participants. According to the applicant, the question was:
“Why was the flag of the Tyva Republic torn off the car with loud-speakers campaigning in support of G. Salchak? This is the first time this has happened in our Republic!”
[“Почему сорвали флаг Республики Тыва с радиомашины в поддержку Г. Салчак? Это впервые такое в нашей республике!”]
The participants gave their answers to the question.
10.  On 16 December 1999 the electoral bloc of the Edinstvo political movement brought a defamation action against the applicant and the broadcasting company. The statement of claim was signed by Mr A.O., the head of the regional campaign headquarters of the political movement. According to the statement, on 15 December 1999 the applicant had asked the show participants for their reactions to the fact that the representatives of the campaign headquarters had torn the Tyva flag off the campaigning car and stamped on it.
11.  On 20 January 2000 the applicant and the broadcasting company filed their observations with the court. They submitted that only individuals, but not legal entities such as the Edinstvo political movement, could incur non-pecuniary damages.
12.  On 5 April 2000 the original statement of claim was replaced by five identically worded statements filed by individual members of the campaign headquarters of the Edinstvo political movement, including Mr A.O., who also acted as the representative of three other plaintiffs.
13.  The case was heard by the Kyzyl District Court of the Tyva Republic. Before the court the applicant maintained that he had read out the question exactly as it had been noted down on the piece of paper which was produced for the court's examination. The applicant also added that at first the participants had not understood the meaning of the question and that he had had to clarify that the incident in question had taken place earlier on that day in front of the headquarters of the Edinstvo movement.
14.  On 19 July 2000 the District Court gave judgment. It found that no video recording of the show was available, and it relied on witness statements to establish the exact wording of what the applicant had said:
“The case file materials include a note which contained the viewer's question phrased as follows: 'Why was the flag of the Tyva Republic torn off the car with loud-speakers campaigning in support of G. Salchak? This is the first time this has happened in our republic!' (case file, page 12).
As the court has established, three candidates for the Tyva Parliament participated in the Elections-99 show – Mr P.A., Mr V.S., and Mr A.M.
The witness Mr P.A. stated that the presenter, Mr Filatenko, had read out a note with the following question: 'What is your reaction to the fact that the Russian and Tyva flags were torn off the campaigning car?'; members of the Edinstvo headquarters had not been mentioned; he did not remember whether the Edinstvo headquarters had been mentioned; the question had been worded differently from the original note. The court does not consider that the testimony of this witness is incontrovertible because at the time of the show he was an assistant to the member of the Russian Parliament G. Salchak.
The witness Mr V.S. stated that Mr Filatenko had asked for the participants' reactions to the fact that the Tyva flag had been torn off the campaigning car by members of the Edinstvo headquarters and stamped on. The defendants distrusted the witness on the ground that he was an assistant to the member of the Russian Parliament Mr K. who is also the head of the republican branch of the Edinstvo movement. However, the court sees no direct link between the headquarters of the Edinstvo electoral movement, which had been established for the purpose of electoral campaigning for the candidate Mr Loktionov, and the republican branch of the Edinstvo movement, which had been established after the elections; Mr K. had not been a member of the Edinstvo headquarters and the court accepts this testimony as accurate.
The witness Mr A.M. stated that he clearly remembered the words 'flag', 'car' and the essence of the question, that a flag had been torn off Salchak's car. The Edinstvo headquarters and their members had not been mentioned. The court considers that this witness testimony contradicts other evidence in the case and also the statement by Mr Filatenko who... had mentioned the Edinstvo headquarters. Since the witness does not remember his mentioning that place, his testimony is incomplete.
The witness Ms O.K., who at that time had been a lawyer at the [Edinstvo] headquarters, stated that Mr Filatenko had put the question as follows: 'What is your reaction to the actions of the employees (or members) of the Edinstvo headquarters who stamped on the Tyva flag?'; in addition to the words 'stamped on' he used the words 'tearing off'; the question was put as if it emanated from a viewer; the question on the note was not read out. As there were many breaches in the electoral campaign, all television shows were recorded by the party headquarters... [The plaintiff] Mr A.O. explained to the court that the recording had been lost during a move to other premises.
The witness Ms B.I., who at that time was in charge of the reception office at the Edinstvo headquarters, stated that in the two or three days following broadcasting of the show there had been many phone calls from people asking whether it was true that members of the Edinstvo headquarters had torn down the flag; voters had been shocked, and had believed it had been true. She had seen the show on TV and the question had been worded as follows: 'What is your reaction to the fact that members of the Edinstvo headquarters tore the flag down from the campaigning car?'
The witness Mr V.K. stated that he had been present at the show; the presenter had read out the question in the following words: 'Is it true that the republican flag from the campaigning car has been torn to pieces?'
The witness Mr V.L. stated that the presenter had read out the note about the tearing of the flag from the campaigning car; he had asked for the candidates' comments; there had been no mention of members of the Edinstvo headquarters.
The witness Mr A.T. stated that the note received had indicated that someone had torn down the flag but he could not remember the exact text.
The witness Ms R.A. stated that the question had been the following: 'What is your reaction to the fact that today, near the Edinstvo headquarters, the Tyva flag was torn off the car campaigning for G. Salchak?'
The court does not accept the statements by the witnesses Mr V.K., Mr V.L., Mr A.T. or Ms R.A. as incontrovertible because these witnesses are employed by the defendant broadcasting company... and are subordinate to it.
The witness Ms O. Ch. stated that the essence of the question had been about the tearing down and stamping on of the flag and the candidates' reactions to that fact. The question had referred to members of the Edinstvo headquarters [she remembered that] because she had intended to vote for Edinstvo and had been shocked by that fact...
The witness Ms E. P. stated that she had heard on TV that a flag had been torn down and stamped on at the hotel; on the following day she had gone to the Edinstvo headquarters to apply for employment and had asked whether it was true; she had been told it was not...
The witness Ms N. G. stated that it had been her professional duty to monitor the media during the electoral campaigning. She had watched every show, including 'Elections-99' on 15 December 1999. In the question put by the presenter the Edinstvo headquarters had only been mentioned as the place where the incident had taken place. There had been no breaches of the law on the part of Mr Filatenko.
Having examined and assessed the witness statements , the court finds as follows: the testimony of Mr A.M. is incomplete; the testimony of Ms N.G. to the effect that members of the Edinstvo headquarters had not been mentioned in the question is refuted by the testimonies of the witnesses Mr V.S., Ms O.K., Ms B.I., and Ms O.Ch. Their testimonies are consistent, not contradictory inter se; the court has no ground to doubt their objectivity and accepts their statements as the basis of its findings. Thus, the court has established that on 15 December 1999, on the 'Elections-99' television show, Mr Filatenko had not asked the candidates the question which had been written on the viewer's note. Instead, he had asked for their reactions to the fact that on 15 December 1999 members of the Edinstvo headquarters had torn down the Tyva flag from the campaigning car and stamped on it.”
15.  As regards the truthfulness of the information contained in the applicant's question, the District Court had regard to the findings of an inquiry carried out by the local police department at the request of the plaintiff Mr A.O. On 21 March 2000 the police refused to initiate criminal proceedings, having established that no desecration of the flag had taken place. The District Court accordingly found that the allegation that the members of the Edinstvo headquarters had torn down and stamped on the flag was untrue. It further noted that such information implied the commission of a morally and criminally reprehensible act and was therefore damaging to the plaintiffs' honour and dignity.
16.  The District Court further examined the issue whether the plaintiffs had been affected by the untrue allegation, even though their names had not been mentioned in the broadcast:
“The broadcast did not mention the plaintiffs by name. However, the withholding of the individual's name is not a ground to reject the claim.
The plaintiffs submitted a list of members of the Edinstvo headquarters which shows that [the five plaintiffs] had been members of the campaign headquarters; the headquarters had included nine members, [the plaintiff] Mr O.A. had been its head.
As [the plaintiffs] Mr O.A. and Mr M.S. explained, they had suffered moral anguish after the show had been broadcast, as they had considered that allegation insulting; their relatives and friends had called and asked whether it had been true.
Not only the plaintiffs but also the viewers had been under the impression that the allegation had targeted the plaintiffs. The witnesses Mr V.S., Ms B.I. and Ms O.Ch. confirmed that fact. Mr V.S. stated that, after the question had been put, he had immediately started wondering who could have done that, because he knew that no one working at the headquarters could have torn a flag down. The witness Ms B.I. stated that in the following two or three days outraged citizens had called the headquarters because they had believed the allegation. The witness Ms O.Ch. stated that she had intended to vote for the Edinstvo movement; after the Elections-99 show schoolteachers had been indignant, and she had gone to the Edinstvo headquarters to verify whether the allegation had been true.”
17.  The District Court finally noted that the original question by the viewer had not contained any untrue information and that the damaging allegation had emanated from the applicant himself. The District Court held him liable to pay 2,500 Russian roubles compensation to each plaintiff in respect of non-pecuniary damage. It further ordered the television channel to broadcast a rectification in the same time slot as the original show.
18.  On 22 August 2000 the Supreme Court of the Tyva Republic upheld the judgment of 19 June 2000, endorsing the findings of the District Court in a summary fashion.
19.  On 1 October 2000 enforcement proceedings were opened against the applicant.